With March being Best Buddies Awareness Month, Her Campus is doing a spotlight profile on Betsy Busot, Program for Best Buddies International.
1. How did you come to know about the existence of the Best Buddies programs?
I found out about Best Buddies when I walked into the Broward Office promoting a Bankruptcy Seminar. I worked for a Foreclosure Defense Law Firm and walked in unknowingly. Being an Exceptional Student Education Major – I was immediately drawn into Best Buddies upon learning what it was all about. I was informed of a job opening as a Program Manager and applied at once.
2. What was it about Best Buddies that appealed to you so much, that you decided to join?
Serving the Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Community was something that was close to my heart. I was learning how to accommodate for students with special needs and working with kids was always my long-term goal.
3. What was it about Best Buddies that compelled you to want to work for them?
The mission of Best Buddies is what compelled me to work for them. To promote inclusion for people with IDD through one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development.
4. What was it, in regards to your choice of career path that made you want to choose it?
My career path is special education so Best Buddies was an ideal place for me.
5. What would you consider to be the ideal pay range, for your position, and why?
If you are in this field it is because you are passionate about it, the pay is not a factor for me. As a legal assistant, I would have made more money but I chose this job because it is something I love. And when you love what you do, you will never work one day in your life.
6. If a massive fire broke out in your home, and you only had enough time to save one thing, what would it be?
As long as my husband and I make it out okay, nothing else matters.
7. From this point looking forward, where do you see yourself in 5, 10, or 20 years from now?
I see myself in the education field in the years to come.
8. If someone like myself, wanted to one-day work in your position, what would it take to achieve it?
To work for Best Buddies, you would need to go to a Vocational Center to be evaluated and later work with the jobs program and apply for a position.
9. What types of training methods are involved, for someone looking to work for Best Buddies?
Anyone in the field of ESE/IDD or with the passion for the mission can achieve a job at Best Buddies.
10. If you had the opportunity to change any one thing in your life, what would it be, and why?
I would not change a thing, everything in life both good and bad is a learning experience.